1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements of a tape cassette loading system equipped in a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus (apparatus), for loading a standard tape cassette or a small (size) tape cassette into a cassette holder and for transferring the cassette to a predetermined cassette holding position in the apparatus, and it particularly relates to a tape cassette loading system capable of loading securely the small sized tape cassette into the cassette holder and for transferring the small tape cassette to the predetermined cassette set position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus employing a front loading system is widely used in, for instance, a Video Tape Recorder (VTR) because of an excellent maneuverability of a cassette accommodating a magnetic tape upon loading it into a cassette holder of the apparatus.
Among the apparatuses employing the front loading system, there is an apparatus which is constructed so as to be selectively loaded with either a standard tape cassette (e.g. VHS Tape Cassette) or a small (size) tape cassette (e.g. VHS Compact Tape Cassette) which is smaller than the standard tape cassette. For instance, in the Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. 3160/1983, there disclosed a prior art using an adapter for the small cassette. Upon loading the small tape cassette into the apparatus, the small tape cassette is mounted in the adapter in such a manner that the same tape path as the standard tape cassette has is preliminary formed within the adapter, and the adapter accommodating the small tape cassette is then loaded into the cassette holder (for standard size cassette) of the apparatus.
Further, as another prior art using no adapter, another magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus has been proposed by the present applicant in the Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. 171461/1991.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus of the prior art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a cassette tray 301 is slidably provided at a front panel side in a apparatus 300. The standard tape cassette 302 or the small tape cassette 303 is selectively mounted at a respective predetermined position on the tray, and is automatically transferred to a predetermined cassette holding position by a transferring operation of the cassette tray 301 driven by a tray transfer mechanism (not shown ), while a front lid (not shown) of the standard tape cassette 302 or the small tape cassette is swung upward to open by a lid opening mechanism. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the loading mechanism of the apparatus 300 in the prior art.
Next, the description will be given to a loading operation of the tape cassette, for instance, the small tape cassette 303 referring to FIG. 2. A segment of magnetic tape T being extended between a pair of tape reels 303a, 303b is positioned just behind the front lid (not shown) with its closed position. Thus, upon the tape loading, a pair of loading poles 304, 305 enter into a mouth provided at a bottom of the small tape cassette 303 to intercept and engage with the tape segment T to draw it out of the small tape cassette 303 with its lid being open, subsequently, the loading poles 304, 305 move respectively to predetermined positions along guides groove 306a, 306b provided on a chassis base 306 so as to bring the magnetic tape obliquely around a rotary head drum 307 in a predetermined range. Then, recording or reproducing of signals on or from the magnetic tape is performed by rotary magnetic heads fixed to the rotary head drum 307.
As shown in FIG. 2, the cassette holding position of the standard tape cassette 302 is different from that of the small cassette 303. However, the loading poles 304, 305 can move to a different loading start position correspondingly with the cassette set position of the standard tape cassette 302 or the small cassette 303.
Furthermore, as another prior art using no adapter and no cassette tray, another magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus has been proposed by the present assignee in the Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. 181053/1991 and in the Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. 283128/1991, wherein such a double door mechanism is disclosed as the standard tape cassette 302 is directly mounted to a cassette holder through a front door which has also an opening for permitting an insertion of the small cassette and a second door rotatably provided at the front door for coverring the opening, thus, the small cassette can be mounted through the second door in the cassette holder. After one of the tape cassettes is mounted, the cassette holder is transferred to a first cassette holding position for the the standard tape cassette or a second cassette set position for the small tape cassette where the loading poles are selectively waiting correspondingly with the first cassette holding position or the second cassette set position.
In the foregoing prior art (3160/1983) using the adapter, either of the standard tape cassette or the small tape cassette is usable in the same apparatus, however, there is a drawback of requiring the adapter when the small tape cassette is used.
In another prior art (171461/1991) as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, either of the standard tape cassette or the small tape cassette is usable without using the adapter for the same apparatus, however, there is a problem that the apparatus requires a large moving area for the cassette tray which moves in and out of the apparatus.
In other prior arts(181053/1991, 283128/1991), the above drawback and problem are eliminated because of the double door mechanism which is used without the adapter or the large cassette tray, however, the double door apparatus still requires some improvements on the loading mechanism because of lack of stability when the small tape cassette is loaded in the apparatus, and because of complexity of the positioning mechanism provided in the cassette holder for securing the small tape cassette in position when it is mounted in the cassette holder.